Access to Justice of Migrant Domestic Workers

The findings of the joint report on access to justice for migrant domestic workers in Lebnaon will be presented at a workshop in Beirut. Representatives from Lebanon's Ministries of Labour, Justice, and Interior, as well as government representatives from migrant domestic worker countries of origin and social partners and NGOs providing legal redress to migrant workers will attend the workshop. The workshop will also cover recommendations from the sutdy and possible avenues for their implementation.

Entitled "Access to Justice for Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon", the study by was compiled by the ILO and the Lebanese non-governmental organization Caritas. More than 730 domestic worker cases supported by Caritas were mapped out in the report to ouline the legal, procedural and institutional challenges facing migrant domestic workers seeking justice in Lebanon. The study covered legal and practical obstacles ranging from the difficulty of establishing proof of the conditions of work, marginalisation of unskilled foreign workers exerted by various stakeholders, and a lack of awareness of labour laws among domestic workers and other foreign workers.

The study is part of the ILO project entitled Decent Work for Domestic Workers: Advocating Institutional Reform in the Middle East, which aims to provide options for reform of national policies and institutions in order to protect migrant domestic workers' rights. Lebanon was chosen as a case study because it is a major country of destination for Ethiopian and other African and Asian domestic workers in the Middle East.